Summary:
Zip code 35007 in Alabaster, Alabama, is served by a single public high school, Thompson High School, which enrolls 2,060 students in grades 9-12 and is part of the highly rated Alabaster City district.
As the only high school in this area, Thompson High School is the clear educational anchor for the community, and it performs exceptionally well. The school boasts a 98.2% graduation rate, which is nearly seven points above the state average of 91.5%, and it has consistently ranked in the top 20% of Alabama high schools for three straight years, currently sitting at 54th out of 380 schools. Academically, Thompson outperforms state averages across the board on 11th-grade assessments, with the most recent data showing 37.31% proficiency in math (state: 27.21%), 54.01% in science (state: 36.17%), and 37.94% in English (state: 33.73%). The school also showed remarkable year-over-year improvement, particularly in science, where proficiency jumped nearly 11 percentage points. This strong performance is notable given that about half of the student body qualifies for free or reduced lunch, and the school achieves these results with a student-teacher ratio of 16.1:1 and per-student spending of $12,268.
One area for potential improvement is chronic absenteeism, which sits at 12.3%—slightly above the state average of 12.0% and notably higher than the district's own 9.1% rate. However, this disconnect between attendance and outcomes suggests the school has effective support systems and credit recovery pathways in place. Since Thompson is the sole high school in the district, its performance directly reflects the district's overall success, making accountability clear and straightforward. For parents, this means a stable, well-established school that consistently delivers strong academic results, excellent graduation outcomes, and efficient use of resources, all while serving a diverse socioeconomic population.
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